Alphabet
by chalantness
Summary: A thru Z drabbles. / C is for Cake: She didn't really pick up that something was obviously going on. Not until that first slice of cake was smashed right into her face by the person she'd just handed it to. "Zach!" "Happy birthday, Gallagher Girl."


_**A/N:**_ There isn't much to say. It's an idea that came to me inspired by a couple of drabbles I've been reading for anime pairings. It's really a collection of comedy ones, though there are some fluff ones thrown in there as well. I think that everyone is relatively in character, with a few exceptions. I mean, they _are_ teens after all—they're allowed their eccentricities!

Disclaimer: I do not own the Gallagher Girls Series because it is rightfully owned by Ally Carter; nor am I making a profit from this fanfic, which is rightfully owned by me.

* * *

**Alphabet**

By sakuracherish814

* * *

**1. A**pples

She hated red apples. That was one of the many eccentricities Zach noticed about Cammie since the start of senior year. No one knew the reason, but whenever she'd see them in the Great Hall on the buffet table for breakfast, she'd cringe away and quickly move along. Bex, Liz, and Macey never thought to ask her.

So when they were walking in town the other day and they passed by a stand of apples, he'd asked.

"Why do you hate red apples so much?"

She'd just blushed and looked away.

"I don't hate them."

"But you won't eat them either."

A pause. Then, "Red was my dad's favorite color."

Zach never made her finish that conversation.

The next morning when she reached the fruit on the buffet table, instead of the usual red, the basket was filled with green apples.

She grabbed one to examine it, though out of the corner of her eye she saw Zach standing with her mother, just chatting.

She could've sworn he was smirking.

* * *

**2. B**irthday

It was her birthday, and she'd been showered in gifts by all of her friends (who'd used their town trip the previous week to shop for her). That morning she was greeted by "Happy Birthday Cammie!" from Bex, Liz, and Macey, and nearly mobbed once she'd stepped outside by all the other girls. When they got to the Great Hall for breakfast, all of her guy friends and even her teachers greeted and hugged her, though she was a little disappointed when all she got was a kiss and hug and a simple "Happy Birthday" from Zach.

Not that it bothered her. Honestly.

* * *

**3. C**ake

Later, at her birthday celebration (entirely planned by Eva, Mick, and Tina and hosted in Madame Dabney's tea room, which she'd happily offered for the occasion) the tea room had been covered in banners with all the tables pushed together and a buffet table had been taken from the Great Hall to display the 3-tear cake with presents around it.

Once presents had been opened and recorded by Bex in her notebook, it was time for the cake.

Cammie hadn't thought to pay too much attention at how too widely everyone was smiling when she cut that first piece.

She didn't really pick up that something was obviously going on.

Not until that first slice of cake was smashed right into her face by the person she'd just handed it to.

"_Zach!_"

"Happy birthday, Gallagher Girl."

And he proceeded to cleaning up the ice-cream on her lips with his own.

* * *

**4. D**ouble-Dates

At first, it was supposed to be the four of them: Cammie, Bex, Liz, and Macey. Then Zach, Grant, and Jonas had been added to the equation after Jonas had (not so) innocently asked Liz why she chose her girlfriends over her boyfriend. Then Macey was asked by Mr. Solomon to demonstrate some P&E moves to (which apparently, in Macey's case, meant on) the freshmen and Jonas decided to tag along when Liz was asked last minute by Madame Dabney to help her with the new design for her tea room.

So that's how Cammie, Bex, Zach, and Grant ended up double-dating in Roseville.

They sat at a diner, burgers and fries and milkshakes and slices of pizzas on their table, having a laughing fit in multiple languages.

"_Et puis le laboratoire a explosé dans toute son visage!_" Bex guffawed.

"_Tardó semanas para conseguir que todo fuera de su cabello!_" Cammie nearly choked out.

"_Credo sia stato fortunato per lei che le sostanze chimiche non sono nocivi_," Zach chuckled as he reached for a fry.

Jonas snickered. "_Hey, kung gusto mong funny, hayaan mo akong sabihin sa iyo tungkol sa Jonas. Guy na hindi dapat pinapayagan kahit saan na malapit sa anumang bagay na maanghang_."

People just stared at them with mouths agape.

* * *

**5. E**asel

Painting was not one of Liz's specialties.

Yet, Cammie couldn't figure out why Jonas had insisted she keep "trying her best" at it when it always wound up like this: paint splotches on the floor (thankfully they thought to lay down an old blanket for cover this time) and all over him, Liz, and the rest of them, and a frantic Jonas trying to pacify a frustrated Liz.

Zach's lips quivered into a smile. "If I told you, you'd slap me."

Cammie arched an eyebrow and then looked at Liz.

She had paint streaks on her arms, her hair was a little mussed, and her cheeks were flushed from her anger.

She didn't get it at first; not until she looked at how Jonas was looking at Liz.

Then she realized: Liz always wore a paint-covered apron that tugged at her curves, two measly tank-tops, and Daisy Dukes when she painted.

Needless to say, both Zach and Jonas left the room with red marks on their cheeks shaped like Cammie's hand.

* * *

**6. F**eathers

"Why am I covered in feathers?"

Cammie made a face as she picked the feathers off of her skin, the sunlight coming from the window too blindingly bright to tell apart the white feathers from her white pajamas and the white bed sheets. She was having an ironically shocking _Breaking Dawn_-related déjà vu moment as she looked over at Zach.

He smirked. "So you don't remember last night?"

The color drained from her face, as her mind panicked. _Oh no. Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh_—

Zach suddenly guffawed, making Cammie nearly jump out of her skin.

"I was just joking. We didn't do anything."

"So why am I covered in feathers then!?"

"I wanted to see your reaction," he admitted shamelessly, pulling her down by the waist so that she was lying on his chest.

"_Zachary Goode!_"

When Macey walked into the room a few minutes later, her eyes widened slightly, one eyebrow arched; Cammie was angrily pouting, her arms folded across her chest as she had her back turned to Zach, who was frowning and rubbing furiously at a swelling spot on his arm that would bruise any minute.

"Why—?"

"Don't ask," Zach and Cammie said in unison; Zach more pleadingly, Cammie more furiously.

Macey rolled her eyes and walked passed them. "Crazy-ass, abusive love birds…"

* * *

**7. G**ames

The spy world, in one sense, is like one big game; one team chasing after another, back and forth, all around the world, sometimes with multiple pieces on the board. But there were also the small games that happened around campus, unspoken and unofficial, but everyone knew about them.

Jonas and Grant had a game: who could shovel their food down their throats the fastest; both boys usually had to be given the Heimlich maneuver by their girlfriends. Macey had a game: how many freshmen, sophomores, and occasionally juniors would ask her out, in what ways, where and when, and how many times; Macey was a pro at that. Even Bex and Liz had a game: for Bex, how many "accidents" Liz would get herself into by the end of the day, and for Liz, how many number of bruises Bex would give to the lowerclassmen that checked her out. Neither of them liked to talk about who won.

But, perhaps the most entertaining "game" that happened at Gallagher was Zach's game: how many shades he could make Cammie blush.

Much to Cammie's dismay, to date, he's never lost.

* * *

**8. H**ockey

"Hockey is so damn pointless," Bex grumbled from her spot on the couch beside Grant as Zach passed a channel with a hockey game going on. "I mean, who cares whether or not they can skate on the damn ice and hit the damn puck into the damn net with their damn sticks."

"You can pretty much say that any sport is pointless," Jonas reminded.

"But hockey's the only sport that allows fighting as part of the game!" she cried out in frustration.

She continued to grumble to herself, and Grant reached over and nudged Jonas.

"It's the only sport she can't play," he whispered.

"What was that?" Bex asked.

"Nothing, dear."

"That's what I thought."

* * *

**9. I**gnorance

Macey McHenry could easily be considered the expert on all things boy-related when it came to the Gallagher Girls (she was the only one who had enough experience; after all, she _had_ been the only Gallagher Girl in history to be admitted mid-year with no prior training, and had attended a public school for most of her academic life). She knew everything about anything when it came to boys and dating. Now, with the merge, she would be bombarded with questions on an almost daily basis by her boy-ignorant classmates.

But there was one field where she was least experienced in.

"It must've been a stupid bet," Macey grumbled, stabbing angrily at her salad during dinner in the Great Hall. She glared across the room in the direction of _him_ – Nick Lucas, a senior like them. Nick was a fairly popular guy, but sweet and a generally likable person.

In other words, he was unlike all the players and wannabes Macey's encountered in the past.

"Why else would he ask me out?"

"Maybe he _likes_ you," Liz drawled, arching one eyebrow.

Macey snorted. "Yeah, right. Then why the hell did he just smile at me and say, 'Oh, that's too bad. Maybe another time' when I shot him down!?"

"Oh, I don't know," Cammie started sarcastically, "maybe it's because he likes _you_ and not just your body, so he's willing to _try_. Go figure."

Macey rolled her eyes, but suddenly stiffened and held her breath when Nick walked in their direction. Cammie, Liz, Zach, and Grant were smiling widely, and Jonas and Bex tried to stifle their laughter as Nick nodded casually to them, eyes lingering on Macey, before breezing by to talk with Dr. Steve.

"It's official," Bex announced once Nick was out of earshot and Macey was breathing regularly again, "you are _clueless_ when it comes to guys like Nick."

She was promptly punched in the arm.

* * *

**10. J**ump

"Are you absolutely insane?" Cammie bellowed over the noise of the helicopter they were in.

Zach laughed. "Come on, Gallagher Girl, don't tell me you _wouldn't_ jump out."

"For _mission_ purposes! When it's _absolutely necessary_!" she shrieked as Zach slung the parachute backpack onto his shoulders. "Not _recreationally!_"

"You'll be too distracted to care about the height, anyway," he reassured as he swooped her into his arms and winked. Cammie latched herself onto him and he leaped out of the helicopter.

Before she could scream, something stifled her cry.

And it was pretty much the best mid-air kiss in her life.

That is, until they'd realized he'd forgotten to open the parachute. It's a good thing they landed in a lake.

* * *

**11. K**arat

"You'll be buying her presents for three weeks straight, at _least_," Jonas snickered.

"Shut up."

"Nothing fake. Damn, that's expensive."

"Shut the hell _up!_"

"Guys," Liz snapped as she pressed the ice pack onto Grant's black eye. She glared a warning glare at Jonas and Zach, who raised their arms up in a silent surrender, though she was pretty sure there was nothing she could do to wipe those smirks off their faces.

Macey shook her head at Zach and Jonas, though a smirk was threatening on her lips as well. "Have we learned our lesson yet?" she asked Grant.

"How was _I_ supposed to know Bex has sensitive skin so she can only wear a certain karat of gold!?"

Cammie sighed. "Maybe you should've asked her first instead of accusing her of being a spoiled, materialistic gold-digger."

* * *

**12. L**etters

"What's this?" Zach asked curiously, producing a large Ziploc bag filled with letters, notes, and envelopes from her nightstand drawer. Cammie looked up from her book and squinted at it for a split second, before her eyes went wide with realization. Zach arched an eyebrow.

"Aren't those from Josh?" Bex asked as she, too, was looking at it. It seemed like everyone in their bedroom was suddenly looking.

But before Cammie could get a single word out, Liz interrupted, "Yeah, those were from sophomore year, right? Man that brings back memories…"

"Memories?" Jonas mused, making Macey and Bex shoot Liz a look, and she stiffened and laughed sheepishly.

"Before she met you," Macey added to Zach, obviously seeing his slight uneasiness at this.

"Whoa," Grant murmured, only to be hit by Bex. Hard.

"It's old news, though, right Cammie?" Bex asked, joining Macey's efforts to reassure Zach.

"Of course," Cammie answered, though she got off her bed and approached Zach.

As she reached him, they kissed gently. "Trust me, you have no competition," she reassured, extending her hand out for the bag.

"Are you going to dispose of them?"

"Would you feel better if I did?"

"Yes."

"Fine, _we'll_ burn them in the fire," she agreed, interlacing her fingers with his. Zach smiled.

It was then that Cammie declared that Zach became easily jealous.

* * *

**13. M**ovie

It was pouring rain outside, trapping Cammie and several other senior girls in the barn after having just finished extra-credit P&E courses with Mr. Solomon. She couldn't help but sigh at the thought of having to stay in the stuffy barn with her chattering classmates (whom she would always love, despite the fact that at this moment they were slowly driving her insane) just because of their lack of umbrellas.

Suddenly, a dark figure could slightly be seen through the white wall of rain, and it grew larger and larger until—

"Zach?" Mick asked curiously, taking Cammie's line as her boyfriend was suddenly before her with an overcoat on, an umbrella over his head, and several other umbrellas tucked underneath his arm.

"Madame Dabney told us to take umbrellas down to the barn," Nick explained at Zach's side.

"Thank you, Mr. Goode and Mr. Lucas," Mr. Solomon said as Zach handed him an umbrella, and he and Nick proceeded to distributing the rest.

Zach put an arm around Cammie's waist, pulling her under his umbrella.

"Let's go?"

She laughed and they followed their classmates and teacher out and into the storm.

But midway, Cammie stopped Zach and turned around so that she was facing him, grinning widely.

"Want to try something really stupid and cliché?" she asked loudly over the rain.

Zach grinned back. "Of course."

And Cammie stretched up, pressing her lips to his, while knocking the umbrella out of his hands, drenching them in rain.

When their parted for much-needed air a few moments later, Zach laughed and said, "You watch too many chick-flicks."

* * *

**14. N**otebook

Macey liked to keep all of her tips and information and rules in a notebook which remains either in her backpack or on her nightstand. The girls consulted it as their Bible for all things teenage-girl-related. This book included a detailed bio on all the Blackthourne Boys for the girls' reference, in which each guy had been labeled things like "egoist" and "player" and "hypocrite" and such. But there was one page that, other than the obvious information, remained blank.

"Why isn't there any information on Nick Lucas?" Eva asked, looking up from the notebook and at Macey when they were reading crowded together in the library. Mick, Tina, and the other senior and junior girls huddled around the notebook were also staring at Macey.

If it weren't for her pride, Macey would've been blushing furiously.

"Oh," Bex replied nonchalantly, not even looking up from her magazine, "she's still doing research in that field."

"Cool," a male voice said, and suddenly in a very spy-like way, Nick seemed to have come from thin air. "So you'll go on a date with me, right?"

It was solely for _researching_ purposes, she'd tried to convince her roommates a few hours later, though nothing she said could stop their giggling.

* * *

**15. O**rchids

Nick discovered a lot of things about Macey McHenry during their date in Roseville; probably much more than she had hopes he would discover. They were small things like her favorite color was green, she shared a hate/love relationship with her parents, though she constantly ate salads and drank water in actuality her favorite meal consisted of a double cheeseburger and large fries with a large 7Up, she preferred silver over gold, despite her behavior she was a fairly dedicated Catholic and wore crosses constantly, etc., etc.—oh, and her favorite flowers were orchids.

"They're beautiful flowers," the florist of the Roseville's Roses Flower Shop they'd strolled into explained as she floated over to where Macey was examining the orchids. "They mean 'magnificence' and 'love' and 'beauty' and 'refinement.' Are you looking for something for a particular occasion?"

"Oh, um, no we're just browsing," Macey said politely.

The lady beamed. "Well, let me know if you have any trouble." And she was gone.

Before they left, Nick told Macey to meet him outside of the diner because he had to purchase a few things, in which she said "Whatever" to and left.

When Cammie, Bex, Liz, Zach, Grant, and Jonas entered the girls' mutual bedroom a few hours later, they were surprised to find a vase of orchids and a sterling silver necklace with a diamond cross on Macey's nightstand that were definitely not there that morning.

* * *

**16. P**en

"Why do you always write rough drafts in pen?" Grant asked Bex one day in the library as he looked over at her paper. There were many scribbles and darkened spots where she'd crossed out words, and darkened letters where you could tell she'd misspelled something and tried to change the letter.

Bex raised an eyebrow. "It's going to be typed anyway."

"Yeah, but your paper gets messy," he reminded. "If you write in pencil like I do, you can just erase, right?"

She shrugged. "I guess so."

"Or you can at least use white-out."

She shrugged and didn't reply.

"I don't like using pencils _because _things could get erased or faded," she finally admitted a few moments later. "And I don't like using white-out to try because there's not point in making my mistakes disappear once I've already made them."

He looked at her blankly, if not strangely.

But when she said, "I… I like things that are permanent…" he knew that she wasn't talking about writing.

When they were working together in the library the next day, Bex couldn't help but smile giddily through the whole study date.

He was using a pen.

* * *

**17. Q**uintessence

They say that love is a pure thing; yet Cammie couldn't fathom quite why when love was filled with flaws.

Grant and Bex were in love, but perhaps out of all the couples, they argued the most. They were both stubborn and somewhat haughty. They yelled and cursed and even a few punches (on Bex's part, of course – angry or not, Grant was too much of a gentleman to hit a lady) were occasionally thrown. Any relationship which included both physical violence and profanities was anything but pure, but they were madly in love, nonetheless.

Jonas and Liz were in love, but the two had so many differences than similarities, therefore were not always on the same page. Liz was shyer and more uncertain with herself, while Jonas had little to no doubts and tended to treat life like one big joy ride. Surely a relationship in which the partners constantly slip up about things and never quite got things right wasn't pure, but no one ever doubted that they were truly in love with each other.

Zach and Cammie were in love, yet their relationship was, to put it lightly: complicated. They have issues, they get into arguments, they get jealous, they had secrets, they doubted themselves and each other, and so many other things that flawed their love.

But they were truly, madly, deeply in love. No one ever doubted they were soul mates.

It was then realization that made Cammie rethink her view; perhaps it wasn't the relationship itself, but what the relationship brought out that was pure.

It was pure the way that even a tough girl like Bex could show her gentler side; or a proud person like Grant would easily admit his own defeat because it made her forgive him; or a shy person like Liz could become a social butterfly; or a carefree person like Jonas could spend so much time worrying about someone else; or a doubtful person like Cammie could place her entire life into a hands of a boy she's only known for less than 3 years; or a person like Zach, who thought himself as worthless, could finally feel like he was worth everything all because of one girl.

In _that_ sense, love was pure.

* * *

**18. R**ing

Cammie got a lot of stares throughout the day, which was expected. It was probably a natural reaction for anyone. But because she was a spy-in-training who is trained to notice things like when people stare at you and whisper behind your back, it was starting to get quite annoying.

"As expected when you're engaged to a Goode," Zach joked casually in an attempt to ease her frustration.

She rolled her eyes but laughed. "We're not engaged _yet_."

"So you _wouldn't_ want to be my wife?"

"What kind of question is that? Of course I want to."

He smirked. "That's all I needed to hear."

She shook her head again, looking down at the twinkling silver band on the fourth finger of her left hand.

"Hey, Zach?"

"Hm?"

"I love you."

He smiled and kissed her lips, but didn't respond.

Instead, he played with her ring for a moment before lacing their fingers together and continuing walking.

It wouldn't be until later when she'd notice what was engraved inside the ring.

_I do, too_.

* * *

**19. S**acrifice

Love took patience, dedication, and time; but most of all, it took sacrificing and compromising.

Bex loved to watch your typical clichéd, romantic chick-flicks; Grant would rather be in the common room with his fellow Blackthourne Boys as they ate chips, made bets, and tried to beat each other on the Xbox; they agreed that Grant would take her to the movies so long as they sat in the very top row so he could play his PSP (with headphones plugged in, of course).

Liz enjoyed visiting the animals at the animal shelter in Roseville; Jonas was allergic to pet dander and therefore sneezed within close proximity with the place; they agreed that Jonas didn't have to go anywhere near the shelter (and that Liz be sure to have taken at least two showers and changed clothes before coming within two yards of him) as long as Jonas made up for the loss of time together (and that he buy her _stuffed_ animals instead).

Macey stated continuously that she "had no interest in relationships at the moment, thank you very much" every time Nick would try to ask her out; Nick very much wanted a second date with her; they agreed that she go out with him at _reasonable_ times if he kept his mouth shut about it, especially with Tina Walters.

Cammie didn't like it when Zach would tease her whenever she did something slightly wrong, despite his claims to be "just pointing it out" to help her; Zach would always feel a little irked whenever she'd feel bad about accepting his gifts or chose to be somewhere else over; they agreed that Cammie would graciously accept his gifts and he would occasionally join her and her mother during their Sunday-night dinners so long as he stop making so many "helpful" comments.

Bex got to have her "quality time" with Grant after the movies, and Grant got to beat everyone's scores.

Jonas enjoyed not having to be an allergic mess in order to spend time with Liz, and Liz's bed was dominated by stuffed animals.

Nick got to have his "dates" with Macey, and Macey didn't have to deal with Tina, Mick, Eva, and everyone else's squeals on the matter.

And Cammie proudly wore or displayed Zach's multiple gifts while Zach held his tongue whenever she'd slip up.

In the long run, the compromises were WIN-WIN situations.

* * *

**20. T**ea

"I don't know how anyone could drink something so—_ugh!_" Jonas complained, referring to the herbal green tea that they had been served during C&A by Madame Dabney. Of course, he hadn't said anything _then_—especially since they were learning proper table etiquette in Japanese culture.

"It wasn't that bad," Zach reasoned.

"It was actually pretty good for a non-carbonated, non-artificially-flavored drink," Grant chimed in.

Jonas rolled his eyes as they arrived at the table where Cammie, Bex, and Macey were at.

"Where's Liz?" Jonas asked.

"Oh, she's getting us drinks," Bex replied.

"It's her latest craving," Cammie added.

"I swear, that girl's cravings are worse than pregnant women," Macey muttered.

Bex rolled her eyes. "She's just grumpy because Liz is having us all try it."

Just then, Liz arrived with a tray of steaming mugs. "Tea, anyone?"

Jonas cursed.

* * *

**21.** **U**nderstanding

Bex sighed. "I hope you understood that when I said we should try to spend 'more time with each other,' I didn't mean that I'd sit here and watch you play games all day long!"

"I hope _you_ understood that when I agreed to it I wasn't going to become your pack mule on your next shopping spree," Grant bit back.

Bex stood up. "I hope _you_ understand that I'm not afraid to break your rip cage if you make me angry enough!"

Grant got to his feet as well. "I hope _you_ understand that I'm not going to hold back if you do!"

"I hope the _both of you_ understand that if you don't shut up you'll both be waking up in the infirmary with broken bones and bruises!" Macey snapped.

They both muttered "we understand" and let Macey return to her magazine in peace.

* * *

**22. V**eil

"Why do I have to wear this stupid thing, anyway, Tina?" Cammie grumbled as Tina was tugging her by her arm. She was in a white dress too grand to be walking around the halls of Gallagher in her matching white heels and her hair all up in a fancy hair-do and her face plastered with the make-up Tina had forced her to wear.

"You're ruining it," she prompted, but before Cammie could get in another word, they came to a stop.

Cammie arched an eyebrow. "What're we doing at the Great Hall?"

Tina smiled even wider (if that was possible) and pushed the double-doors open.

"What the—"

Cammie could barely recognize the Great Hall. There were bows and candles and flowers and drapes everywhere, all in white. Beige fold-up chairs had been brought in and arranged in rows, creating a large aisle down the middle. The tables were pushed to the side and covered in white tablecloths, fully set with China and utensils and centerpieces as if there was some kind of royal banquet going on; all but one table, which was pushed to the front of the room and draped in white but left plain, nothing but a Bible.

She was suddenly aware of the fact that the entire senior class was there, as well as some of the teachers, and even her mom. They were all standing there in tuxedoes and lightly-colored dresses, and the scene vaguely reminded Cammie of something, though she couldn't quite pinpoint it.

"Let's take a walk, shall we, Cameron?" a tuxedoed Mr. Solomon asked, taking her arm, and already tugging her down the aisle before she could respond.

Cameron? Since when did Mr. Solomon call her Cameron?

Dr. Steve was standing at the front of the room, behind the table, with his hands on the Bible.

Bex, Liz, and Macey stood to her left; they were all lined up with flowers in their hands and wearing the same burgundy dresses. To her right, Grant, Jonas, and Nick were wearing tuxedoes with burgundy ties and handkerchiefs in the blazer's breast pocket.

"Who gives this girl to this man?" Dr. Steve asked, grinning a little too widely.

"Wha… What's going on?" Her voice was a little higher pitched than usual.

Everyone ignored her, and Mr. Solomon said, "I do," and took her hand, raising it up and out.

Then her hand was suddenly in Zach's, who was also dressed in a tuxedo with a burgundy tie. He grinned, smirking just a tad bit at her bewildered expression. "Oh," he replied casually, "so you haven't caught on?"

Cammie whipped her head around, her eyes wild for a moment.

"Is this a… a… _wedding?_" She could barely get the word out.

She found her mother sitting in the row of chairs behind Bex, Liz, and Macey. She smiled and nodded.

"Well," Mr. Solomon interjected, "you can't get married _quite_ yet."

"Oh, Joe," Dr. Steve laughed heartily, "even _you_ agreed to take part in this little charade."

Mr. Solomon grinned but didn't say anything.

"Well, Gallagher Girl," Zach said, and she turned back to look at him. "You ready?"

There was a moment of silence.

Then,

"Aren't I supposed to have a veil?"

* * *

**23. W**ish

At the "reception" that immediately followed Cammie and Zach's faux wedding, everyone was seated in their tables and chatting excitedly, clearly enjoying themselves.

Due to Tina's planning, their faux wedding and complimentary faux reception followed a traditional wedding and reception to a tee. They had their "first dance" as well as the mother-son, father-daughter dance (in which they improvised by having Cammie dance with Mr. Solomon, her _god_father, while Zach danced with Headmistress Morgan, his "_mother_-in-law") and the money dance. Bex and Grant even gave the maid-of-honor and best man speeches, and they even had a 3-tear cake too grand for their relatively small group.

In the midst of passing out slices of cake to everyone, Mick exclaimed, "Look, a shooting star!"

Everyone turned their heads up to the skylight as a streak of light dashed across the starry nighttime sky.

"Make a wish," Eva said.

There was a pause, and after a few moments of silence, everyone burst into laughter and returned to their previous activities.

Macey turned to Nick, whom she was seated next to at the bridal party's table, and nonchalantly asked, "What did you wish for?"

He grinned. "If I tell you, it won't come true."

Macey just shook her head and returned to her cake.

"So…" Nick began. "You want to go out?"

"I thought we already—"

"I mean _go_ out… You know, as in not secretively."

She paused.

"Yeah, fine. I might be into that," she muttered, barely above a whisper.

She turned her head to hide her blush and embarrassed expression, though Nick still caught it.

_Guess wishes upon shooting stars really can come true_, he mused in his thoughts.

* * *

**24. X**'s and O's

"Why do little girls always put X's and O's?" Jonas asked curiously.

The question had been prompted due to the fact that he, Zach, Grant, and Nick were in their girlfriends' mutual dorm room while the girls were going through some of their older belongings. Liz had been flipping through pages of a journal she'd kept in elementary school, and at the bottom of one of the pages, there were X's and O's everywhere.

Liz shrugged. "It stands for hugs and kisses," she explained.

"How, exactly?" Nick asked.

"How are we supposed to know?" Macey asked back.

"Well, you girls are the ones who always write it, so…" Grant said.

"It's not like we invented it," Bex reminded. "It's just been apart of girl childhood since the dawn of time."

"You see, guys would never put that kind of stuff," Zach said.

"Oh?" Cammie asked, arching an eyebrow. "And why not?"

"We prefer the real thing."

And he tugged Cammie's arm so that she fell on his chest, and kissed her lips.

It was agreed after then that the girls would never use X's and O's again.

* * *

**25. Y**ou

It was hard to believe that with all of the dangerous training their spy-in-training lifestyles took, the most danger Cammie has ever been in was when a student driver in Roseville hit a turn a little too hard and knocked her down in the process of the car spinning out of control.

When she woke up in the hospital that morning, realizing this fact, she couldn't help but laugh.

She told Zach this as well, and he chuckled lightly.

"It figures you would completely ignore the near-death factor of the situation to figure _that_ out," he commented.

She grinned. "I'm one of a kind. You think you can handle that?"

He smirked.

"Bring it."

* * *

**26. Z**ero

"I can't _believe_ you talked me into this!" Liz squealed over the roar of the helicopter as she clutched onto Jonas for dear life. He was clearly enjoying himself and his girlfriend's reaction as he laughed and slid an arm around her waist, pressing her closer.

"Come on, babe," he reassured, "it's not like your jumping alone."

"You think she'll be okay?" Bex asked, intertwining her fingers with Grant's. "She's looking a little green."

"Don't worry. Jonas won't drop her," Grant reminded, only to be playfully elbowed lightly in his rib cage.

"Are we jumping or what?" Macey asked.

"Uh, guys," Nick spoke up, "I think Macey's about to jump out on her own."

"No! We're supposed to jump _together!_" Cammie reminded.

"Well then somebody better push Liz out!" Macey cried.

"There's no way Cammie would've agreed to this!" Liz screamed, her head still buried in Jonas's shoulder.

"Actually Cammie had a pretty good time when I took her," Zach informed, smirking.

Liz looked at Cammie for a moment before asking, "You two were making out, weren't you?"

"All the way, until we hit the water."

"Uh, guys," Headmistress Morgan suddenly said via comms units. "Mr. Solomon can't keep steering this thing around in circles. If you're still going to jump together, you should all jump out soon."

"Ready?" Cammie asked.

"No!" Liz shrieked.

But she was pretty much ignored.

"6," Macey prompted, lacing her hands with Nick's.

"5," Nick continued as they all lined up at the side of the helicopter.

"4," Bex squealed in anticipation as she linked arms with Grant.

"3," Grant said, tightening his grip of Bex.

"2," Jonas half-laughed as Liz let out another squeal and curled harder into him.

"1!" Zach and Cammie exclaimed.

But no one had to time to say "0."

Instead, they just leaped.

* * *

_**A/N:**_ FINALLY! IT IS COMPLETED! _Gosh_, you don't know how frustratingly _long_ it took me to write this! I would write so many one day and then be stuck on one letter the next! Now let's see… comments? I like the results, though there are some aspects I would've liked to change about it.

**EDIT:** So when I first published this, I'd been so thrilled that it was actually _done_ (plus it was getting late and my family and I were about to head out for dinner to celebrate my step-mom's birthday) so I didn't really feel up to putting more comments and such and doing the editing. However, now that I've slept and feel re-energized, I've gone back to do so! Let me know if there are still any errors that I still overlooked...

**Individual Comments:** (only for a few choice drabbles; commenting on all of them would take too long)

**D **for Double-Dates: I didn't want to put the translations because I felt it ruined the drabble, but basically the four of them are talking about a time when Liz conducted a lab experiment-gone-wrong and it exploded, and then Grant mentions how Jonas is just as accident-prone as well.

**F** for Feathers: Yes, I like the _Twilight_ Saga, but not as obsessively as many other fans. But my favorite was _Breaking Dawn_ so I wanted to incorporate it somehow.

**I** for Ignorance: Nick Lucas is (obviously) my OC which I created specifically for Macey McHenry; they're somewhat opposites in personality. He made a "debut" appearance in my one-shot _It's a Spy World, After All_ though in there I'd said he was a year older than them, but in this fic they're the same age. I'll definitely be using him more often because Macey deserves love, too, though I'd created him _before_ the 3rd book came out so I hadn't heard of Preston yet. I guess we'll just have to see where they go...

**K** for Karat: Like Bex, I have sensitive skin and therefore can only wear about 14 karat and over, as well as sterling silver, without my skin breaking out. I was telling my friends one day and one of them (jokingly, of course) had called me "spoiled" so that's where that drabble was inspired from.

**P** for Pen: This one is one of my personal favorites, and it was actually inspired from a character from a different series: Annabeth Chase from the _Percy Jackson & the Olympians_ Series. She'd said something along the lines about wanting to "build something permanent" and ever since then I fell in love with that quote.

**V** for Veil: The idea for this drabble (of everyone throwing Zach and Cammie a faux wedding in the Great Hall) was originally supposed to be a one-shot, but I was having a hard time getting it to work, so I threw it in here instead.

**Y** for You: How many of you watch _Glee_? If you do, you _might_ have noticed that the exchange between Zach and Cammie at the end of this one was taken from _Glee_'s 1x08 episode, Mash-Up, where Puck and Rachel go out briefly. It was just for one episode, but that one episode made Puck/Rachel my official OTP for _Glee_ and I thought it was so cute when Puck said that line to Rachel.

**Z** for Zero: I thought it was a good way to end the whole thing because I had fun writing the scene in **J**ump and it was just a fun way to show a happy ending.

Well, those are all my comments. If anyone wants any specific comments or has any specific questions, don't be afraid to ask!


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